Top 25 Poll - No. 6

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Indiana Wesleyan remained unbeaten in Mid-Central College Conference play and kept its stranglehold on the No. 1 spot in the NAIA Division II Women’s Basketball Coaches’ Top 25 Poll, the national office announced Monday. The Wildcats garnered all 13 first-place votes for the sixth-straight week as they tallied 343 points. Indiana Wesleyan continues to put the clamps on its opponents, limiting them to a NAIA-low 49.6 points per game. The team’s only blemish remains the 65-62 loss to then-No. 22 NAIA Division I Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) on Dec. 17.

No. 2 Briar Cliff (Iowa), No. 3 Davenport (Mich.), No. 4 College of the Ozarks (Mo.) and No. 5 Concordia (Neb.) round out the top five once again. Briar Cliff, winner of six out of its last seven Great Plains Athletic Conference games, pulled in 329 points and is ranked No. 2 for the fifth time this season. Meanwhile, Davenport reeled in 323 points, followed by College of the Ozarks with 305 and Concordia with 304. Davenport pushed its win streak to 15 games by pasting Michigan-Dearborn, 101-63, on Jan. 21.

No. 16 Southwestern (Kan.) makes the biggest jump this week, climbing up seven spots. The Lady Builders top the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference with a league mark of 9-1. No. 17 Cardinal Stritch (Wis.) vaulted four places, spurred by a 78-71 victory over then-No. 21 NAIA Division I Robert Morris (Ill.) on Jan. 17. On the other hand, No. 15 Mount Mercy (Iowa) experienced the biggest fall as it went back seven positions due to a pair of losses to unranked Midwest Collegiate Conference foes last week.

There are four new teams to this week’s poll: No. 19 Tennessee Wesleyan, No. 22 Huntington (Ind.), No. 24 Union (Ky.) and No. 25 Ave Maria (Fla.). Of the four, Ave Maria is the only one making its first Top 25 appearance this season. The Lady Gyrenes have won seven of eight and sit in second place in The Sun Conference with a 5-1 league record. The following squads dropped from the rankings: Grace (Ind.), Bluefield (Va.), Montreat (N.C.) and Saint Francis (Ind.).

Twelve of the 14 Division II women's basketball conferences and independents are represented throughout the Top 25. The Great Plains Athletic Conference placed the most teams of any league in the poll with five: Briar Cliff, Concordia, No. 7 Morningside (Iowa), No. 9 Northwestern (Iowa) and No. 18 Hastings (Neb.). The Mid-Central College Conference was second with three ranked teams: Indiana Wesleyan, No. 10 Bethel (Ind.) and Huntington.

The poll was voted upon by a panel of head coaches representing each of the conferences and independents. The next poll will be announced on Jan. 30.

Notes:(All information as of the 1999 – 2000 season) Indiana Wesleyan has now appeared at the top of the poll on 20 occasions, one more than Morningside (Iowa) for the most No. 1 rankings all-time … Hastings (Neb.) has appeared at No. 1 a total of 13 times, followed by Saint Francis (Ind.) and Davenport (Mich.), who have both made a dozen No. 1 appearances … There have been 14 different teams to garner the No. 1 ranking all-time … Northwestern made 33-consecutive appearances in the top 10 until falling out of the rankings in this season’s first regular-season poll … The Red Raiders have now been placed in the top 10 of 89 polls all-time … Three schools have spent an entire season at No. 1: Morningside in 2008-09, College of the Ozarks (Mo.) in 2007-08 and Saint Francis (Ind.) in 1999-2000 … In the last 12 years, five teams that have been rated No. 1 in the preseason have gone on to win the national championship … Ave Maria (Fla.) is making its first appearance all-time in the rankings.